The girl of sparks
by TheGirlWhoRuns
Summary: Dylan school is on fire, and he is safely outside with all the other seventh graders, one who catches his attention. Her grey eyes are sparkling with tears and she refers to him as a, mortal? Dylan doesn't know what it is, but he knows something is different about this girl, and he intends to find out what. REVISED and NEW CHAPTER
1. 1: Mortal?

**So this story has been recently revised and I have added another chapter, one that I believe is better than the first three. So read it, please review, and enjoy :) **

**Rights to Rick**

I sat and watched as the flames danced around my school and black smoke billowed from the windows. I had been dismissed early like all the seventh graders, and soon after that younger kids came running from the school led by crazy eyed teachers. My thoughts seemed so distant from the blaring sirens of the school, the teachers yelling and the younger kids crying. I mean, I wasn't happy to see my school burn, nobody is, but bad memories seemed to burn with it. The awkward school dances where all the guys stood against one wall and the girls against the other, the constant snickering behind my back, and the paper airplanes that hit me in the back multiple times. I turned away from the school to escape the smell of burning hope and deathly expo markers and noticed a 7th grade girl sitting in the corner. She had curly blonde hair that fell like a curtain around her face, and she wore blue jeans with an orange t-shirt that said something I couldn't decipher. I noticed a tear streak down one corner of her face and I walked towards her, curiously. As I got closer, I recognized her. What was her name? Anna, Annie, Beth? I couldn't put my finger on it. All I knew was that she was unlike all the other girls. While they seemed to cry for attention, she always strayed from the spotlight. She was nice enough, she helped me pick up my things when I dropped them, but people had given up trying to be her friend a long time ago, probably due to the death glare she gave them. I however, had never tried.

"Why are you crying?" I asked, my voice sounding surprisingly gravelly. She looked up, and her face immediately turned expressionless.

"The school's on fire if you haven't noticed" she replied sarcastically.

I studied her face; the dark circles under her stormy grey eyes, and the way she fiddled with the necklace around her neck.

"Yes it is," I replied," But that's not why you're crying."

Don't ask me how, but I knew something was wrong. She looked up once again, startled. Slowly she stood up and studied me. Her grey eyes sparkled intelligently and I saw the gears turning in her head.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"I'm Dylan," I replied.

"Well, Dylan" she said slowly. "You are correct. I am not crying because of the school."

She cocked her head to the side. "Your ability to read emotions is very advanced for a mortal, though" she said, almost to herself, before striding away.

Mortal? What the hell did she mean by that?

"I'm Annabeth by the way" she yelled back over her shoulder as she walked away..

I was left more confused than ever, but a kind of curiosity and excitement that I hadn't felt in a long time boiled up inside of me.

So I did the only logical thing. I followed her.


	2. 2: Whats going on?

She ran around the corner and raced into the park in the middle of our town. Everything in our little city of Klipta, San Francisco* surrounded the park, like in some storybook. She hung a left, dodging people and jumping over sticks like she was trained to do so. I on the other hand was huffing and puffing, tripping over my own feet. I was glad when she stopped at the edge of the pond, and I knelt down, my hands on my knees, and watched her tiptoe behind a boy with raven black hair who had his feet dangling in the water. She put her hands on his back and pushed him in to the pond.

"I knew I'd find you here Seaweed Brain," she said as he resurfaced, and laughed.

She _laughed_.

"Did you also forget that I am the son of the sea god?" he replied.

"Say it louder will you Percy?" she scolded, looking around.

She then turned back to face him.

"And I don't forget," she pointed out.

The boy laughed, shaking his full head of hair and looking up. His green eyes seemed to reflect the ocean. What is it with these people and their eyes? I wondered. They went and sat down on the bench, their hands awkwardly resting in the space between them. I rolled my eyes. Even I could tell they should be together.

"So," said Annabeth, clearing her throat.

"The school did burn down," she said quietly. It sounded like she knew it was going to happen.

The boy, Seaweed Brain, looked up with startled eyes.

"But we put the best campers on the job," he replied, bewildered.

Okay, so she did know it was going to happen. Annabeth grit her teeth.

"Well they weren't good enough, Percy."

"He, um, Luke used Greek fire?" Percy asked.

What's Greek fire? I wondered. The flames that burned down our school looked pretty normal to me. And who is Luke?

I saw Annabeth tense up at the name, but then she sighed, "Yeah."

They sat there in silence for a minute, staring at the pond. Suddenly, tiny little sprays of water shot up.

"Percy, stop it," Annabeth whined, punching him in the arm.

He turned around, his face portraying how lost he was.

"Stop what?" he asked.

Annabeth laughed. _Again._

"Look at the water, Percy," she said.

He looked over and realization dawned on him. The spurts of water immediately died down, and he scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

This is way too much weirdness for one day, I thought to myself, and walked away slowly. I had followed Annabeth hoping for answers, and all I got was so many more questions. Somehow, I couldn't keep myself from thinking about the water moving, the way she called me a mortal, and how they had talked about Greek fire. I wanted to figure out who Luke was, learn more about Percy and Annabeth, and find out what they knew about the fire at school. I just had to.

Or maybe I was hallucinating and needed to see a doctor, fast.

***Klipta, as far as I know, is not a real place in San Fransisco**


	3. 3: Questions and answers (Cryptic ones)

I was about to turn around and head home when I heard Annabeth's voice.

"What do we know about the kid that Lu-" she cleared her throat.

"That Luke was targeting at the school?" she asked the raven haired boy next to her. He turned to face her.

"Well, he did burn the place down so I don't think he was just looking for someone," he said. "But I do think he was trying to lure you out so he could talk to you," he said softly.

This was obviously a touchy subject. And Annabeth had been in danger? I peered around a tree branch and saw that Annabeth's face had gone completely white.

"He would never, no, I just-" she took a deep breath.

"Grover told me that some satyrs had been sent to my school because some demigods were found there, it was probably them that Luke had come after, to recruit them or whatever" she said using the same voice that she used during debate team arguments; the reasonable voice. "And then when they refused, he sent the Greek fire as a warning, showing them they couldn't tell anyone about the whereabouts of Kronos' army," she said.

The boy seemed to notice her tone of voice too, but I wonder if he heard the desperation hidden there; like she was trying to convince herself. He shook his head.

"Annabeth, Luke is gone. He isn't himself, and-" one look at her face and he put his hands up in surrender.

"Whatever you say," he said, raising his hands in surrender and reaching to pat her back awkwardly. "The important thing is to make sure those demigods are safe, and we should probably get back to camp, Wise Girl," Percy said.

She pulled away.

"Seaweed brain," she retorted.

He sat with his head down for a couple of seconds while she stared at the back of his head. Then she stood up, angrily.

"Fine," she said finally, storming away.

"Coward," I heard her mutter.

He finally looked up, confused. "But Tyson was really looking forward to seeing you!" he called, standing up. But she was long gone, and I heard Percy curse under his breath.

I shook my head. He was hopeless. I jumped to my feet, racing to the entrance of the park. My plan was to "run into" Annabeth "accidentally" and talk to her, get everything sorted out. I saw a flash of blond hair turn the corner. Facing the opposite way, I counted to ten, then I turned around and she was right across from me.

"Annabeth, hey," I yelled. "It's me Dylan, do you remember me?" I asked. She turned, her face glum. Once she saw me she tried for a fake smile.

"Hey Dylan! Sorry, I can't talk now, see you soon," she said, racing off.

I grabbed her shoulder and she turned, surprised, looking down at the place my hand had touched her.

"Yes?" she said sharply.

My hands turned clammy at the sight of her calculating grey eyes up close.

"My moms a social worker," I blurted out.

"That's nice," she replied, uncertain.

I ran my hands through my short brown hair.

"Um, so if you ever need help, if you're in any danger, she can help," I said.

Her eyes narrowed and she looked at me, suspicious.

"What do you know?" she asked me.

"How do you know that I know something?" I asked, to try to get her off topic.

She sighed

"Answer my question please." It didn't seem like a request, more like a threat, actually.

I broke under her glare.

"I overheard you talking in the park, I'm just worried about you, I," she stopped me.

"What did you overhear?" she asked signaling me to go on with her hands.

I shuffled nervously. If I was a criminal and Annabeth was the detective questioning me I would have spilled my whole evil scheme right away.

"That there's a person named Luke," I began. Her face paled.

I went on. "Who wants to hurt somebody and might be responsible for the school burning down," I said looking down at my converse.

Annabeth was speechless.

"You're almost as bad as the Stoll brothers, eavesdropping," she said finally, although mostly to herself.

I looked up. "Do you need, like, witness protection or something?" I asked.

She shook her head no.

"Right now I need you to stop worrying about me," she said tucking her hair behind her ears.

"Go back to your normal life playing video games and eating junk food and pulling pranks or whatever, enjoy it," she said.

I was now super confused, but I knew that there was something Annabeth was keeping from me. When I looked at her, I saw she had an evil glint in her eye.

"It's just teenage girl stuff," she said. She knew exactly what to say to get me to go away.

"Well, I'll see you around," I said backing away. She smiled and waved before sprinting off.


	4. Dye Job Demon

I was browsing through the snack aisle, looking for the low fat saltines my mom had sent me to get at the supermarket, when I ran into Annabeth. Literally. The saltines flew out of my hands and onto the floor and Annabeth landed with a _thunk _on the linoleum.

"Gods. I'm so sorry," she said, straightening up and brushing the hair out of her eyes. "My fault, I wasn't paying attention," I said. "Oh, Dylan," she said, surprised. "I haven't seen you in a while," she said.

After the fire, the school decided they weren't ready to re-open yet, and so there had been no school for a month. It was already June, and the principal said they would be ready to begin classes again at the beginning of next school year. So yeah, I hadn't seen Annabeth since that day in the park, when I has aksed if she had wanted to talk to my_ mother_. God I regretted that. Later that day, I thought I had just dreamed it, and wasn't expecting anymore weirdness from then on. But boy was I wrong. See, ever since that day I have been seeing things; a snake like lady catching mice in an ally, a man disappear into thin air, and a giant shaggy dog wandering the streets. And what's more, the vision of the school fire had been returning to my brain, but the fire looked, green. Each time the vision returned, I could swear I saw more green, and then I would blink, and the fire would be its normal orange.

"How have you been?" I asked.

"Fine," she replies, her hands moving impatiently. "I wa…" she began, but then turned around sharply and pushed herself against the face of the snack shelf.

"Um, Annabeth?" I said, looking around. But before I could say anything else, her hand clamped around my mouth and she turned around the corner, leading me to the next aisle.

She looked at me, and I swallowed under her fierce gaze.

"Dylan, I need you to stay here and stay quiet," she instructed. "Promise?" she prompted. I didn't answer.

Instead, I was looking behind her shoulder to see two girls walking into the aisle we had just come from. They looked like cheerleaders with their blue and white skirt and matching bows in their hair. I could feel myself frown; our town didn't have a cheer squad. But this image only lasted a moment, and the next thing I knew, their giggles had turned into snarls. The pretty teenagers had grown fangs, and their skin was a nasty shade of green. I gasped and Annabeth shushed me.

"What are those things!?" I hissed.

A look of confusion passed across her face for a brief second before she turned around. When she looked back, I could tell she was determined.

"You can see them?" she asked calmly.

"Uh, yeah." I replied. "Can't everybody?"

She was shaking her head. I looked around and noticed no one was screaming or running in terror, like I should have been.

"Look, no time to explain now, but here's the run down: green ladies who may look like cheerleaders, bad. If I run them through with this," she said, holding up a particularly deadly dagger, "they are gone, and that, my friend is what we want." She finished.

"Just, you go and…." But before she could finish, the demon cheerleaders had come around the corner.

"Demigod, yum. I was hungry, but I don't think Samuel's Sausages are going to be enough," said the taller one, whose hair was a bright red, obviously dyed. Who knew demons died their hair too?

"But demigod sounds like a much more filling meal," she finished with a snarl.

This was getting to a whole new level of weird. If I thought that scene at the park and my little visions were icing on the cake, this was the sprinkles. Demigods? And what's wrong with Samuel's Sausages?

Suddenly, the demon lady lunged, knocking some garbage bags of the shelf, reaching for Annabeth. But she was already gone, and she sprinted behind dye job demon. She raised her knife, prepared to strike, when the other demon, a brown haired one, snuck up behind her.

"Annabeth, watch out!" I yelled, and she turned around quickly, swiping her foot underneath the brown haired demon lady and knocking her off balance. I raised my eyebrows. Annabeth was good. I figured that I probably should be helping, and as dye job demon stood up, I took a tin of cat food and launched it at her head.

She screamed as it hit her, the metal colliding with whatever he head was made out of, and squirts of shredded turkey and giblets sprinkled through her bright hair. She stayed down.

As the other demon began to get unsteadily to her feet, Annabeth spun around in a circle, scratching the demon on the wrist. The lady demon looked down at her injured wrist and howled, but before she knew what was happening, she disintegrated into dust. Annabeth stood behind her, pulling the dagger from the monster and sheathing it in her backpack.

I looked around at the ruined supermarket, my mouth hanging open. Annabeth studied me, and she stepped over a fallen samples tray and took me by my elbow.

"Come on, we have a lot to talk about" she said, and led me out of the supermarket.


End file.
